


Starting a Fire

by DragonSilk



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Bandit Killing, F/M, POV Second Person, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-12
Updated: 2017-04-12
Packaged: 2018-10-17 23:37:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10604673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSilk/pseuds/DragonSilk
Summary: “If you shoot one of the ants on the wall, the other will see and sound the alarm,” Nil whispered from behind you.You froze as his voice seemed to crawl under your clothing, burning up your skin with its touch. “Shhhh.” You didn’t need the distraction of his voice. Just having him present threw you off your game.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! So the Nil bug bit me and... here I am. 
> 
> First things first, if you aren't familiar with my work, I enjoy writing from a second person perspective. With video games, I think it's fun to have the "reader" be the player character. In this case, you're Aloy (I mean, you've been Aloy while playing the game so...). However, I do keep it a little vague, and you don't have to be Aloy if you don't want to read it that way. (The "you" character is characterized with Aloy in mind, but you'll find things like her red hair are not mentioned.)
> 
> Second, I'm using prompts from Charred Heart’s “#32 In His Rulebook” challenge on Lunaescence Archives. There are 32 prompts, but I won't be using all of them so the numbers may skip around. 
> 
> Fingers crossed I can keep Nil in character! I find his dialogue a challenge to write, but I think that delicious voice is worth a shot. 
> 
> Also, I add tags as I go along. 
> 
> Enjoy?

As you crouched in the grass, you scanned the walls of the ruins for bandits. There was one near the gate, but wasn’t there always one near the gate? You could also see two bandits pacing the top of the wall. There were probably more on the other side but beyond your ability to see.

“If you shoot one of the ants on the wall, the other will see and sound the alarm,” Nil whispered from behind you.

You froze as his voice seemed to crawl under your clothing, burning up your skin with its touch. “Shhhh.” You didn’t need the distraction of his voice. Just having him present threw you off your game.

“Don’t you want all of the bandits to come crawling out? Like moths to the flame…”

“I’m trying to focus.” You turned to look back at him, and that was a mistake. His grey eyes made your brain short-circuit. You shut your eyes and took a breath, trying to get your thoughts going again. “Shh. Before one of the bandits hears you.” You turned back to the ruins. The two bandits pacing the wall seemed to be having a conversation with each other. The one near the gate continued to lean against the wall, picking his nails with his dagger. You couldn’t take any of them out without the others noticing.

Well, you might be able to take out the one at the gate as long as it only took one shot. From the limited view that you had, it didn’t look like there was anyone on the other side who might notice.

You looked around at your options for other hiding places. You needed to circle around the bandit hideout to get a sense of the layout before you felt confident about the best place to start a plan of attack, but you didn’t have much in the way of hiding spots.

That settled it then. The man at the gate needed to go so you could move around without the risk of him spotting you.

You pulled an arrow out of your quiver, nocking it on your bow. You hooked the bowstring and then raised the bow up, fixing your stance before extending your arm. This position took you out of the grass a bit, and you knew that you didn’t have all the time in the world, but you still took a moment to correct your aim. The head may be a small target, but it was the best one for a silent death.

Then you released the arrow, dropping back down the moment it sprung free from your bow. Once you settled back into the grass, you looked over to see if the arrow had hit.

You found the bandit’s corpse motionless on the ground. Your arrow seemed to be lodged in the neck, but it was hard to tell from your distance. Triumphant, you grinned back at Nil.

That was a mistake. You thought of his eyes as ice, but right now, they seemed to burn as he met your grin with a smirk. His pleasure over your kill made you want to preen.

But first, you needed to clear out the rest of the bandits. Just one kill wasn’t worth much of a celebration.

You turned away from him and watched the men at the wall, listening for any shouts that might indicate your dead body had been discovered. The noises of the camp didn’t seem to change, so once the bandits were facing away, you darted over to a ditch to your right. You focused on getting into the ditch and pressing your body against the wall closest to the camp, diving toward the center so Nil would have room to join you.

His body joined yours within a heartbeat.

You shimmied along the dirt wall, keeping your body pressed close and out of sight of the bandits. At the end of the ditch, you could see another patch of grass that was close enough to roll into. You stayed crouched in the ditch as you peeked out to assess whether it would be safe to duck into the grass or not.

You ducked back down. One of the men on the wall seemed to be looking out, and you didn’t want him to spot you. You stayed crouched, counting time in inhales and exhales. Then man would move. You needed to outwait him.

Just in case, you pulled out an arrow and nocked it. Then you peeked back out. A quick assessment of the wall revealed three men walking along it now. After determining none of the bandits seemed to be looking your way, you darted forward into the bushes.

Then you took a moment to reassess your surroundings. Three bandits on the wall. No additional gate in sight. There was a lot of higher grass on this side, however, and that would allow you to move around without detection. Keeping an eye on the bandits, you sidestepped through the grass, trying not to disturb it too much.

There was a tower on the opposite end of the camp, and you were slowly working your way toward it. It seemed like there was a bandit on the top of the tower.

He would be your next victim. You just needed a better angle.

So you worked your way around the camp, noting any bandits you saw along the way. Once you could make out the bandit on the tower, you found a spot with a good vantage point and took aim. Your arrow flew a little low, hitting the bandit in the chest, but it  was enough to cause him to fall over the edge of the tower.

His screams alarmed the other bandits, and they began to shout out questions about what just happened. The men on the wall straightened up and began to scan their surroundings.

Perhaps you shouldn’t have gone for the man on the tower, but it was too late now.

So you stood, taking aim at one of the bandits on the wall. You fired off a shot as an arrow whizzed past your head. Your arrow also missed its target, but you noticed the other bandit fall to the ground. Nil had another arrow nocked and fired at your original target.

You aimed at the third and last man on the wall… no way would you let Nil have the most kills. You shot off an arrow as quickly as you could manage, and then nocked another arrow right after. This one you took a moment to aim as you noted that your previous arrow had hit the bandit but nowhere critical. You shot at him again, satisfied to see the bandit kneel down. He might not be dead yet, but he would be out of the action until you could get up there with your spear.

A quick assessment of your surroundings didn’t reveal any other bandits, but shouting from the encampment kept you on your toes. They knew you were out here. You dashed toward bushes that were closer to the wall. Before the men on the wall would have spotted you, but now you were able to get in close before anyone could see.

Once you were close to the wall, you began to move back toward the gate.

There were two men at the gate. One studied the dead body while the other scanned the surrounding area. You waited. Patience would keep you from getting killed.

Then the two men began speaking to each other, distracted for the moment. You nocked an arrow and took aim. Then you let it fly. Your arrow went through the arm of your target while another arrow went through the leg of his friend.

You fired off another arrow as quickly as you could, but it was too late. They saw you and began to shout out to the others. An arrow went through the neck of one of the bandits, and it spurred you into action. You shot the remaining one in the chest.

An alarm went off, and you knew more bandits were being summoned.

You ran past the gate, scattering traps along the opening. On the other side of the gate, you made eye contact with Nil. He grinned, and you couldn’t help but return the smile. Any bandits who tried to leave would be destroyed by your traps and then arrows would rain down from both sides.

The first round of bandits set the traps off with a bang, and you began to fire off arrows at a rapid rate. Your accuracy suffered, but most of the bandits were too distracted by their burning clothes to retaliate. They dropped one after the other, but more came, drawn by the sound of the warning bell.

As the dead bodies piled up in the gates, the other bandits stayed back with their bows and arrows. You pressed your body against the wall, making it hard from them to shot you from above, but while they couldn’t shoot you, you couldn’t shoot them.

There was a brief pause.

The bandits at the gate were dead. The men inside called out to each other, all of them trying to find a way to shoot you without going through the gate. You shouldered your bow, knowing Nil would cover you while you set up your tripcaster. The bandits hesitated, so you set up a blast trap for the moment they tried to leave their hideout.

Once the blast wire was in place, you rolled back over to Nil, almost getting shot in the process. Then you took off along the wall, heading for the back of the camp. The wall had been broken up back there, and you felt confident that the two of you could scale it and sneak up on the bandits from behind. As you reached the broken section of the wall, an explosion went off, and you knew that the bandits had set off your wire.

They didn’t know where you were now, but it wouldn’t take them too long to figure out that you weren’t by the gate anymore. You shimmied up the wall, jumping onto it and crouching down. You scanned the area, taking a moment to place the remaining bandits.

One inspected the charred bodies at the gate. Two were on the wall above the gate, looking for you. There was another one in heavy armor hanging back. “He must be the leader.” You didn’t like the look of his weapon. In your exposed position, it might force you back over the wall.

With only four left, you could take out the leader without worrying about the others. They would go down easy enough. In fact, Nil might take them out before you even finished the leader off.

You took out two electric arrows. After a moment’s hesitation, you added a third. That should be enough to down the big guy. You turned to Nil and smiled. This was the final moment. “I’ll take out the leader. Cover me and distract the rest?”

“Leaving the grunts to me? How generous.” When he smiled like that, you almost expected him to reveal some fangs. “With pleasure.” He nocked an arrow, pulling himself into a ready position.

You nocked your three arrows with care. These shots needed to hit, but it didn’t matter too much where. The idea was to paralyze the leader and then rush forward. So you aimed for his torso, hoping that you were right in your assessment that his armor didn’t have any defense against electricity. It seemed more like a metal than leather.

You took a deep breath. A shout rang out, and the leader began to turn. You released the arrows, and they shot forward. You followed behind them without waiting to see the result. Vaulting over the wall, you fell into a roll forward, pulling your spear off your back once you were back on your feet. You rushed forward and stabbed at the bandit leader.

Your hurried strike landed on his shoulder, deflected by the armor there. He groaned, disoriented, but his eyes focused on you.

You aimed and shoved your spear through his throat. The soft flesh yielded to your spear, and the force of your weight pushed the spear into the dirt as blood sprayed your face and chest. Men didn’t require as much strength to damage as machines did.

You braced yourself and pulled your spear out of the ground, pulling it out of the man’s neck in the process.

Nil called out, but it was too late, and before you could turn, you were on the ground. Dots danced across your vision as you rolled your body to the side, hoping the direction was away from the enemy. Your spear had dropped to the ground, and as you picked yourself up, you scanned the ground for it.

A man rushed forward, and you danced away, trying to keep out of his reach while looking for your spear. You were slow, muddled by the spinning in your head, and you had to drop to the ground and roll before he knocked you in the head again.

You pulled out an arrow and held it like a dagger. He was too close to get your bow out and too close for you to look away to locate your spear. You needed distance.

Then an arrow went through his arm. You jumped away from him, unhooking your bow and loading it with the arrow you had in your hand. He was too close to bother aiming so you released your arrow the moment the bow pulled taut.

The arrow pierced his chest.

He stayed upright and screamed out a battle cry.

A second arrow, not one of yours, lodged itself in his neck.

He crumpled, falling to the ground with blood gurgling out from the arrow wound.

You nocked a second arrow and scanned the area, ready to shoot anything that moved.

Nil was the only man left standing. You let your bow fall to your side and took a moment to find your breath. Nil saluted and turned away, heading back to your little camp outside of the bandit den, leaving you to free the prisoners and take all the credit by yourself.


End file.
